Stuck indoors? Ten great apps for housebound fitness freaks!

Sometimes, life with a family means finding the time to go and workout at the gym or the park is impossible. Technology to the rescue! Check out these apps that will help you get fit from the comfort of your very own home.

There are all kinds of reasons why you might need to work out at home. Wintery darkness, personal safety, unpredictable schedule and sleeping children all need to be factored in and often it’s better to try a homemade fitness regime, rather than no regime at all.

Exercise DVDs are a great way to focus on fitness at yours, but I think that more and more it will be fitness apps that deliver this kind of content. Apps are great because they can be updated regularly and new features are easily added. With an extra dollar or two you can unlock new content as the maker creates it. I’ve never seen anyone do THAT with a DVD!

Here’s some great apps to get you moving:

C25K
Cost: Free

Have you ever tried this program? I’m not much of a runner, but I did the full eight weeks of this on my cross-trainer in front of the telly and it got me fitter then I’ve ever been. You could try it on a treadmill, too. (Or bust outside and run in the park if you must!)

Pocket Yoga
Cost: $2.99

If yoga classes are way too much stretchy pants and downward dog for you, maybe you’d like to try some poses in the comfort of your own home? This app features 27 different yoga programs for various fitness levels. It’s also won a heap of awards, so it MUST be good, right? Get stretching, peeps.

Fitocracy
Cost: Free

This is like Facebook for sporty types, but that’s not to say you can’t be sporty from home. Track your workout, set goals and feel like you’re part of a team, even though you’re push-upping in front of the telly! Fitocracy even has achievement badges so you can feel rewarded when you level up or complete a workout.

Learn Pilates
Cost: Free

This app thinks you can master Pilates in 30 days which sounds like a win to me. The free version features a beginner, intermediate and advanced class, but if you pay an extra $1.99 you can unlock a whole bunch more stretching. Pilates promises to make you fitter and healthier so I’m thinking that might be $1.99 well spent!

Pilates Workout
Cost: Free

Would you like to do 350 different pilates workouts? If you answered YES you are a stretchier type than I am. This free app is loaded with videos to get you bending and snapping in no time. Test it out and see if it’s the kind of thing you’re into!

Zumba Dance
Cost: $5.49

You thought that you had to go down to the dance studio and Zumba it up, but I am here to tell you that you can push back the couch and Zumba at home. How good is that? Very good if you like Zumba, methinks. Routines go for between 20 and 60 minutes and you can dance Bollywood, Hip-Hop, Meringue and more. Nice!

Chatelaine 10 Minute Fitness
Cost: Free

Custom workouts, meal plans and tracking, social network integration and how to videos make this a great app across the board. You can play it on your TV via Airplay if you have AppleTV too. There are more than one hundred moves you can pull into your own workouts or you can follow the pre-programmed routines instead. Get moving!

Just 6 Weeks
Cost: $0.99

This is a great app if you want to do some intensive training and gain strength quickly. It includes programs to get you doing: 100 push-ups or 200 sit-ups or 150 dips or 200 squats or 20 pull-ups. You can set reminders to get you moving and this app has a fitness test to make sure you’re working at the right level.

Instant Fitness
Cost: $2.99

How good does INSTANT fitness sound?! Very magical! Still, this app has lots of different workouts to do using your own body weight, resistance bands or weights. You can search more than 100 programs and it will log them automatically once you’ve completed them. How could you resist workouts with names like ‘Six Pack Club’ or ‘Sexy Booty’?!

My Five Minute Yoga Practice
Cost: $2.99

Iyengar yoga teacher Eve Johnson will guide you through 11 different yoga sessions. She provides detailed instruction with photos and audio commentary, all in just five minutes a day. You can visit the fabulous Eve’s website for more yoga and good health tips, too.